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My team focuses on understanding the mechanistic and metabolic regulation of physiological autophagy pathways in mammalian tissues. We have a major focus on mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy) in tissue development, disease and repair. Our lab has been instrumental in defining the clinical significance of macroautophagy in humans, defining the mechanistic regulation and roles of mitophagy in disease and discovering new genetic and metabolic factors that underpin tissue integrity. We have a particular focus on the central and peripheral nervous systems and collaborate with world-class teams to investigate the physiological significance of autophagy and mitophagy in many distinct contexts.

We use a variety of experimental approaches that involve advanced molecular cell biology, biochemistry and microscopy methods in primary mouse neurons, traditional tissue culture and human iPS-derived neurons, and tissue analysis using sophisticated mouse genetics, reporter mice and pre-clinical animal models. We also employ multi-OMICs approaches in genetics and metabolism, availing of neighbouring core facilities in single-cell analytics in Helsinki and work with international leaders in metabolomics. We are also committed to developing the next generation of scientists through in-depth training and mentoring.